


Milk and Alcohol

by mademoisellePlume



Series: Rachel-Centric Drabbles [11]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Cowboys AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-07
Updated: 2012-10-07
Packaged: 2017-11-15 19:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/530853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mademoisellePlume/pseuds/mademoisellePlume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Cowboy AU of Animorphs.<br/>[God help me, I know nothing about cowboys.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Milk and Alcohol

The night had been spent at the racetrack, Rachel enthusiastically cheering on her favourite horses, and Cassie rolling her eyes as she kept track of the horses her parents had been working on recently, checking for signs that more treatment would be needed.

A man had come up to try and engage Rachel in conversation about her marriage prospects, and it was only the timely arrival of her cousin Jake and his friend Marco that saved the man from getting a bullet wound and saving Cassie having to tend to it.

And then Rachel spotted the luckless Tobias in the corner, his nose in a book and his uncle paying more attention to his beer then to his nephew. She’d gone over to fetch him, and insisted he walk home with the rest of them. He looked a bit bewildered, but didn’t argue.

She got him a glass of milk like Cassie was drinking when he confessed that he couldn’t stand the taste of the alcohol here, even while teasing him about it and drinking her own. And she ‘subtly’ stepped on Marco’s foot when he tried to join in on making fun of him. He might have been Jake’s best friend since he’d moved to Texas from California when his mother had died, but that didn’t mean he was her friend, or that she was going to let him turn her good-natured teasing into something meaner.

They left after a while, Jake and Rachel waving goodbye to Jake’s brother Tom who barely seemed to notice them leaving, spitting a wad of chew into a spittoon while deep in conversation with the local schoolmaster, Mr. Chapman.

Jake and Rachel were each walking their horses when they left the racetrack, since none of the other three had horses of their own to ride. Rachel’s father, after all, owned a very successful horse ranch, and Rachel’s mother was known to be the secret behind his financial success, which meant not only did Rachel get a mount, but Jake and his brother Tom had each gotten beasts of their own to ride for quite inexpensive prices.

Tobias, of course, was the hapless orphan grudgingly taken in by an aunt and uncle that already had enough mouths to feed, and was far happier to read stories about things that had never happened then to do any providing for the family. He wasn’t treated very well in general.

“So Rachel, thought about giving up your spinsterhood yet?” Marco drawled. Rachel didn’t hesitate before letting go of her horse’s lead and taking her rifle in her hands.

“You making an offer, Marco? Because I will make it clear what my opinion is to you.” She said in what was clearly a threat as Cassie rolled her eyes and took the horse’s lead. “Again.” Her hands on the gun were steady and practiced.

“Not me, Princess, I’m not looking for Cassie to need to do her animal doctoring on me tonight.” Marco laughed, holding up his hands as the group cut through a field that was being left for a year before something new could be grown on it. Tobias snickered. Rachel beamed.

“David bothered me again. ‘I don’t even mind how unnatural you are when you wear men’s clothes!’” She parroted in a mocking voice, grimacing. “I’ll show him unnatural!”

“You’re never going to get married.” Jake shook his head. “You’re lucky your father lets you carry on the way you do.”

She stuck her tongue out. “You’d be dreadfully bored if I acted proper. I’m the best ranch hand he’s had, he says, as good as a son. Who needs marriage?”

Cassie and Jake were walking next to each other now, each leading a horse, as if by accident.

“…What’s that?” Tobias asked suddenly, and they all looked back at him. He’d stopped walking, and was staring at the sky.

They all looked up in turn.

“It looks like a shooting star.” Marco tried to shrug it off.

“It looks like it’s coming this way.” Rachel disagreed.

“It is coming this way.” Tobias said, staring at it, a strange light in his eyes.

And when the strange machine, the egg-like ship with a brutally wicked tail landed, the horses went mad, the two Berensons and Cassie working to calm them as Marco and Tobias stared in total slack-jawed astonishment.

“Impossible.” Marco said.

“Incredible.” Tobias breathed.


End file.
